Retaining Walls

[rsaint]

I have to put up a 18 - 20" retaining wall between my east neighbor from my property line to build it up in Valemount. The neighbor to the west is up quite high and the neighbor to the east is extremely low. My place will be at least 2' higher than the neighbor on the east and in the this is only 2.581 m ~ 8.5 ft to property line. Dropping 2' in 8' is a bit too much. I have more room on the west side 4.303 m ~ 14', that is the higher house and I want to make a place to park an RV or sled trailer, the neighbor has a driveway on that side as well.

What ideas are out there.

View attachment 241567

Check out London Boulders we used them for our retaining wall.

 

[+SLEDWRECKS+]

Here's Pisa2 that I did in my yard last year for a visual

 

[X-it]

That video maxwell put up, if you add a fabric between the blocks every 3rd coarse and into the back fill. It is way stronger at holding the earth back.

 

[teamdirt]

That video maxwell put up, if you add a fabric between the blocks every 3rd coarse and into the back fill. It is way stronger at holding the earth back.

Its not fabric its a geo-grid

 

[Tchetek]

Ron, this is what your going to want for your situation. Running bond offset blocks. So the wall tapers back as it goes up and the suppliers will make a nice cap for the top. 50/50 offset ensures best strength. This isn’t a garden retaining wall this needs to be a gravity wall so that area of your yard is actually usable ( park atvs sleds etc) if you don’t go with an offset wall it will start to fall over in short time. See it lots




I’ll have the design done Tommorow so you’ll know how high

Kinda crazy not to use the local resources of Valemonts stone? Prob be financially cheaper too.

His wall is only one stone tall anyway. It won’t fall over.

That stone fractures horizontally like shale. It like a heavy duty lego set with no instructions.

Dig a trench 1 foot deeper than you Finnish grade. Pack a 6-8 inch footing of road crush or the local grind. Buy the stones you want 6 inches taller than needed and set 6 inches below finish grade on the low side. 3000 pound stone 1/4 in the ground isn’t moving. He can go hand pick the stones he wants.

the blocks are cleaner. But not the same mountain cottage vibe!

 

[woody_tobius_jr]

There is a house on Sylvan lake being built right now with a 2 level retaining wall using massive precast concrete blocks.


Something like this, but its just 2 massive blocks.

View attachment 241578

We were just in Invermere holidaying, went on a river float by Fairmont and saw this house that had this type of block retaining wall, but it was formed to Look like stone work, looked really good

 

[lilduke]

We were just in Invermere holidaying, went on a river float by Fairmont and saw this house that had this type of block retaining wall, but it was formed to Look like stone work, looked really good

Im sure this one will be pretty fancy when its done. This wall is 2 levels and about 20feet high, and its lake front.

No house yet.


Ill take a pic next time im out on the lake.

 

[SUMMIT TREE]

That video maxwell put up, if you add a fabric between the blocks every 3rd coarse and into the back fill. It is way stronger at holding the earth back.

Yep. Check this sh*t out….

 

[teamdirt]

Kinda crazy not to use the local resources of Valemonts stone? Prob be financially cheaper too.

His wall is only one stone tall anyway. It won’t fall over.

That stone fractures horizontally like shale. It like a heavy duty lego set with no instructions.

Dig a trench 1 foot deeper than you Finnish grade. Pack a 6-8 inch footing of road crush or the local grind. Buy the stones you want 6 inches taller than needed and set 6 inches below finish grade on the low side. 3000 pound stone 1/4 in the ground isn’t moving. He can go hand pick the stones he wants.

the blocks are cleaner. But not the same mountain cottage vibe!

FYI- that size of rock in the pictures is subject to spalling and shifting. Give it 8-10years

 

[X-it]

For those who want to know a bit more about what i was taking about... fabric, of coarse this is not readily available. This crap is unbelievable i had to build a house on really questionable soil. I put this crap down even under the footings, inspector grilled me lots about this stuff. He came back a few years later to examine how this stuff held up. You could tell right away this inspector used to be a certified carpenter he had lots of knowledge not like some of the other twits who should not be there.

 

[teamdirt]

For those who want to know a bit more about what i was taking about... fabric, of coarse this is not readily available. This crap is unbelievable i had to build a house on really questionable soil. I put this crap down even under the footings, inspector grilled me lots about this stuff. He came back a few years later to examine how this stuff held up. You could tell right away this inspector used to be a certified carpenter he had lots of knowledge not like some of the other twits who should not be there.

I think that would classify as a Geo-grid. Is it stretchy? Basically expands the load over a greater area. In lots of applications you can not get compaction to 96%. In this case an engineer would approve a geo-grid.

You can buy or order all this stuff from Nilex

 

[X-it]

No strech to it at all, even a lot of resistance to bending, lots of different geo-grid products out there though, used several different types over the years. Built a large octagon tank about 30 feet across just to get to 95% proctor took weeks on a compactor. But rknight111 just wants some feed back to a 20 inch retaining wall... haha. What looks good to some looks like crap to someone else.

 

[rknight111]

You can get the Geo Textile matting or grid at Cascade on 156 st. In Edmonton. I like to keep it simple, I'll look at Alan blocks and what a few suppliers have, I want to put it there and leave it. Its all sand in Valemount. Not much frost heaving. My wall will be around 2' high from the property on my east side.

 

[Summitric]

You’re not doing the whole front in gravel crush, for driveway?

 

[rknight111]

You’re not doing the whole front in gravel crush, for driveway?

Yes, there is the main water service on the right side, and the neighbor on the right is going to be regrading his property. The right (west) side neighbor is looking at coming down about 8-10" of grade. The east end of his property is his driveway which that side will be our drive through driveway to park sled trailers and RV's. We are planning to putting the gravel from the west to the east property line. On the east side currently it is between 20 - 24" high but but goes down in the last foot to the height of the much lower neighbors property on the east.

 

[Scrambled]

If it were me I'd just go Allen blocks on a very compacted crush base,I'd put drainage pipe and drain rock,or even just drain rock on directly on the sand behind it so water can run into it easily,no need for geotextile for a wall that high as long as you use good free draining material 4 to 6 inches from final grade,quick and easy,

 

[Lightningmike]

Finally got some pics of some retaining walls at lake. The tall one is about 10 to 12' high

 

[Cyle]

The only reason you need a retaining wall is because the neighbor on the left built his house way too low, should be 18"-24" higher easy, you're being really nice by doing so, you could easily just build and grade it if you wanted to, it's their issue they have no drainage. Depending on cost to get blocks there, you could also look at concrete wall on footing.